Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > June > Confessions of Louis XI – Extracted from the life of Louis XI.

Poisoning of the Duke of Guyenne

…I got busy after Guyenne. Odet d'Aidies, lord of Lescun, who had quarreled with me, was conducting the preparations for the war with marvelous vivacity. It was with great effort that I fed the bellicose ardor of my brother, the Duke of Guyenne. He had to fight a fearsome adversary in my brother's mind: Madame Thouars, lover of Charles, Duke of Guyenne.

This woman only sought to take advantage of the power she exercised over the young duke, in order to divert him from the war, for she was not unaware that the war was aimed at the marriage of her lover. His secret enemies had affected, in his presence, to praise the beauty and brilliant qualities of the bride. This was enough to persuade her that her doom would be certain if that princess were to marry the Duke of Guyenne. Certain of my brother's passion, she resorted to tears, prayers, and all the extravagances of a woman lost in such a situation. The fainthearted Carlos relented and communicated his new resolutions to Lescun. Lescun immediately warned the Duke of Brittany and the interested parties, who, in alarm, sent representations to my brother. These, however, had only the effect of plunging him back into his doubts.

However, the favorite managed, not without difficulty, to dissuade him again from war and marriage. From then on, the death of the favorite was decided by all the princes.

Fearing that my brother would attribute it to Lescun, whose dislike of Madame Thouars was known to him, they decided to win over Jean Faure Duversois, a Benedictine monk, my brother's confessor and abbot of Saint-Jean d'Angély. This man was one of the greatest supporters of the Lady of Thouars, and no one was ignorant of the hatred he felt for Lescun, whose political influence he envied. My brother was not likely to blame his mistress's death on him, for that priest was one of his most trusted favourites. Since only the thirst for greatness connected him to the favourite, he was easily corrupted.

For a long time I tried to seduce the abbot, but he always rejected my offers. However, it left me with the hope of achieving my goal.

He easily understood the situation he would get himself into by rendering the princes the service they asked of him, for he knew that it was not difficult for them to get rid of an accomplice. On the other hand, I knew my brother's fickleness and feared becoming his victim.

To reconcile his safety with his interests, he resolved to sacrifice his young lord. Taking such a side, he had as much chance of success as he had of failure. For the princes, the death of the young Duke of Guyenne must have been the result of a mistake or an unforeseen incident. Even when imputed to the Duke of Brittany and his cronies, the death of the favorite would have gone unnoticed, so to speak, since no one would have discovered the reasons that gave it real importance, from a political point of view.

Granting that they could be blamed for the death of my brother, they would have been exposed to the greatest dangers, for it would have been my duty to punish them severely. They knew that it was not good will that I lacked and that in that case the people might turn against them. Then the Duke of Burgundy himself, oblivious to what was going on in Guyenne, would have been forced to ally himself with me, on pain of being accused of complicity. Even in the latter case, everything would have worked out in my favor. I could have Charles the Bold declared a criminal of lèse majesty and have Parliament condemn him to death for the murder of my brother. Such condemnations, pronounced by that high court, always had great results, especially when they were of indisputable legitimacy.

It is easy to see what interest the princes had in handling the abbot. On the other hand, nothing is easier than getting rid of him in secret.

But with me, the abbot of Saint-Jean had a greater chance of impunity. The service he rendered was of the greatest importance to me, especially at that moment, because the formidable league that was being formed and of which the Duke of Guyenne was the center must infallibly lose me. The only way to destroy it would be the death of my brother, which represented my salvation. He aspired to the favour of Tristan the Hermit, thinking that by this means he would rise above him, or at least share my good graces and my trust in him. Moreover, the princes had been imprudent enough to leave in his hands undisputed proof of his guilt: they were several writings, and as they were written in very vague terms, it was not difficult to substitute the person of my brother for that of his favourite, designated there between the lines. By handing me these documents, he removed from me any doubt as to my innocence; for that reason, he avoided the only danger he ran on the side of the princes, and, proving that I was in no way involved in the poisoning, he ceased to be my accomplice and exempted myself from any interest in having him killed.

It remained to prove that he himself was not involved. This was a minor difficulty. To begin with, he was assured of my protection; afterwards, the princes had no proof of their guilt, and he could return the charges to them, by way of slander.

The Abbot agrees to practice poisoning

All in all, he sent me an emissary who pretended to have come spontaneously to tell me that the Abbe de Saint-Jean was unhappy with my brother. I immediately saw the full advantage I could make of such an arrangement and fell into the trap set by the astute abbot. Not suspecting that this man had been sent by him, I dispatched one of my trusted spies. Saint-Jean played his part so well that the emissary was deceived. Based on his report, I wrote to the abbot in order to win him over. He appeared to be very scrupulous, but I triumphed, albeit with some difficulty. He agreed to take charge of the poisoning of my young brother. I was so perverted that I didn't hesitate to commit this horrible crime.

Henri de la Roche, squire of the Duke's repostaria, was charged with preparing a peach that would be offered by the abbot himself to Mme. de Thouars while having lunch at my brother's table. The beauty of this fruit was remarkable. She caught the prince's attention and shared it with him. As soon as they had both eaten, the favourite felt violent pains in her bowels and soon expired in the midst of atrocious suffering. My brother experienced the same symptoms but with much less violence.

Perhaps it seems strange that the abbot should have used such a means to poison his young lord. In fact, the slightest incident could jeopardize your plan. It was, however, the only thing that prudence could authorize: it admitted the possibility of a mistake. Touched by the peach's beauty, it was only natural for Mrs. de Thouars to attract the attention of her lover and offer him half; he couldn't help but accept her and eat a little, even out of consideration. Assuming that he ate only a little bit, this would be enough to provoke the first necessary symptoms; a later poisoning could determine death, as a consequence of the first one.

The princes were seized with terror as soon as they learned of the dire consequences of the favourite's poisoning. They had not the slightest suspicion of the abbot's premeditation. They thought only of giving every appearance of naturalness to the young lady's death and her lover's illness. None of them took the initiative to offer a counter-poison to the unfortunate prince, for fear of compromising himself. Indeed, such an attitude would imply that the poison was known and, consequently, that someone was an accomplice to the crime.

Thanks to his youth and the strength of his temper, Carlos resisted the poison for some time. His physical sufferings did nothing but bring him back to his old projects with more ardor. Fearing that illness would lessen the zeal of his officers, he wanted them to renew their oath of allegiance. As he required them to engage in his service, against all odds, even against me, some of them, fearful of their death, which seemed at hand, refused to do so, and passed over to my court.

Conclusion

In the previous issue, we saw the interesting details given by Louis XI regarding his death. The fact that we have just reported is no less remarkable from the double point of view of history and the phenomenon of manifestations. In fact, we only had difficulties with the choice: the life of this king, as dictated by himself, is indisputably the most complete we have and, we can say, the most impartial. Louis XI's state of mind allows him today to appreciate things at their fair value. From the three chosen fragments, one can see how he makes his own judgment. He explains his politics better than any of his historians. He does not absolve himself of his conduct, and in his death, so sad and so vulgar for a monarch a few hours before all-powerful, he sees an anticipated punishment.

As a phenomenon of manifestations, this work offers a special interest. He proves that spiritist communications can enlighten us about history, as long as we know how to place ourselves in favorable conditions. We hope that the publication of the life of Louis XI, as well as that of Charles VIII, which has also been completed, will soon be placed alongside that of Joan of Arc.

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This article provides an important complement to the article “Imposter Spirits – The False Father Ambrósio”, from July 1858, which served as the basis for the article called “The role of the researcher and the medium in communications with the Spirits“. Click here to read.

In this edition, Kardec begins by addressing the problem of certain contradictions in spiritist communications: “At first glance these contradictions really seem to be one of the main stumbling blocks of the Spirit Science”

Remembering that Spiritism is a science, not a religion, for a few reasons:

• It is a development of Rational Spiritualism[1]
• It is, objectively, a positive science – an expression always used by Kardec – in the sense of a knowledge formed from the methods of observation and experimentation of the facts.
• It can only be seen as religion from the point of view of natural religion, as approached by the ER, and the “moral” aspect comes from precisely this same origin!

Kardec emphasizes that all science, in its beginning, has its contradictions, which only disappear as this science develops and one begins to understand what was not understood before.

“By the way, the Spirits always told us not to worry about these small differences and that in a short time everyone would be taken to the unity of belief. In fact, this prediction is realized daily, as we penetrate more and more into the causes of these mysterious phenomena and as the facts are better observed. On the other hand, the dissidences manifested at the origin evidently tend to weaken. It can even be said that currently they are nothing more than isolated personal opinions[2].”

"Although Spiritism is in Nature and has been known and practiced since the highest antiquity, it is a fact that at no other time was it so universally spread as it is today..

[…]

It was reserved for our century, in which progress receives an incessant impulse, to bring to full light a science which, so to speak, only existed in a latent state. It was only a few years ago that the phenomena were seriously observed[3]. In fact, Spiritism is a new science, which is gradually implanted in the minds of the masses, hoping to occupy an official position.
At first this science seemed very simple. To superficial creatures it was nothing more than the art of moving tables. A closer look, however, revealed that it was, in its ramifications and consequences, much more complex than had been imagined. Turntables are like Newton's apple, which in its fall ends the world system.

Kardec points out that, for each new discovery, multiple hypotheses arise, not necessarily wrong, as each one sees according to their conceptions and their knowledge and reasoning. Unity can only emerge in a science when it advances through the scientific method: if a hypothesis is shown to be incorrect by the evidence, it must be abandoned in favor of the truth.

On which side is the truth?

It's what fits to the future[4] to demonstrate. But the general trend could not waver. Evidently, a principle dominates and little by little unites the premature systems. A less exclusive observation will unite everyone to a common origin and soon we will see that the divergence will definitely be more accessory than fundamental.

The various spiritist theories have, therefore, two sources: some were born from the human brain; others were given by the Spirits. The first ones emanate from men who, trusting too much in their own lights, believe they have the key to what they are looking for, when more often than not they have only found a lockpick.fake key]. This is not surprising, but that, among the spirits, some said one thing and others said another, it was less conceivable. However, this is now perfectly explainable.

At first, there was an absolutely false idea of the nature of spirits. They were imagined as beings apart, of an exceptional nature, having nothing in common with matter and having to know everything. […] On the news of the recent manifestations, the first idea which generally came to the minds of most creatures was, that this was a means of penetrating all hidden things; a new mode of divination less subject to doubt than ordinary processes.

Remembering that Kardec analyzed with depth and attention all the manifestations and communications with which he had contact, from which he obtained the Spiritist Scale, from which a simple study that could save many from the difficulties they get into.

Based on a study carried out with a lot of rationality and common sense regarding the communications of the different Spirits, Kardec continues the long article giving simple examples of how Spirits of different orders and classifications express themselves. The whole contradiction arises from the failure to observe this fundamental point, in addition to the insistence on obtaining answers that cannot be given, to whose questions inferior spirits answer, without any scruples.

Kardec gives the example of the possibility that “one day” man will reach the Moon and, there, find its inhabitants: how could they know humanity through the reports of a few.

The causes of the contradictions in the language of spirits can therefore be summarized as follows:

1st. ─ The degree of ignorance or knowledge of the Spirits to whom we address;

2nd. ─ The deceit of inferior spirits who can, through malice, ignorance or malevolence, taking a borrowed name, say things contrary to those that were said elsewhere by the Spirit whose name they usurped;

3rd. ─ The medium's personal faults, which can influence communications and alter or deform the spirit's thinking;

4th. ─ The insistence on obtaining an answer that a spirit refuses to give, and that is given by an inferior spirit;

5th. ─ The Spirit's own will, which speaks according to time, place and people and may not think it convenient to say everything to everyone;

6th. ─ The insufficiency of human language to express the things of the incorporeal world;

7th ─ The interpretation that anyone can give to a word or an explanation, according to their ideas, their prejudices or the point of view from which they view the matter.

There are many difficulties, which can only be overcome through long and assiduous study. We also never said that Spiritist Science is easy. The serious observer, who delves into everything maturely, with patience and perseverance, apprehends a lot of delicate nuances that escape the superficial observer. It is through such intimate details that he initiates himself into the secrets of this science. Experience teaches us to know spirits, as it teaches us to know men.

1 – Since 1832, at the Sorbonne University, Paris, the school of rational spiritualism has established itself as official philosophy, structuring the human sciences, which in France are called moral sciences. Moral because the object of their study are the facts derived from human action; sciences such as history, law, philosophy, letters, among others. Differing from the natural sciences, which are dedicated to the phenomena of nature.

Among the moral sciences, there was the group of philosophical sciences, with the proposal to understand the human being, through the following disciplines, divided into two classes: psychological (psychology, logic, moral, aesthetics) and metaphysical (theodicy, rational psychology, rational cosmology). (FIGUEIREDO, 2019)

2 – Same as today. Only by the honest scientific method will these contradictions, which have been widely installed in the spiritist movement, be able to be dissipated.

3 – The confidence of nineteenth-century researchers in the power of science to describe reality led to the investigation, through the observation of mediumistic phenomena, of the modern spiritualism (the study of the works of Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo largely complement this theme). Many scholars and freethinkers, based on the observation of the turning, dancing and talking tables, began to consider the possibility of scientifically investigating the post-mortem survival of the human being. (PIMENTEL, 2014 – click to read).

Kardec has his first contact with Spiritism in 1854, when a friend of yours, the magnetizer Auguste Fortier reports that the “magnetic fluid” employed by a magnetizer was now causing the tables to move. Kardec receives the news with disinterest, as he supposed that the magnetic or electric fluid could explain the phenomenon.

Months later, Mr. Fortier sought him out again, this time to say that the tables didn't just move, but they responded intelligently to the questions of the assistants. Kardec, skeptical, still saw it as a “tale to make us sleep standing up”.

About a year later, in 1855, another friend, Mr. Carlotti, speaks for the first time of the intervention of the Spirits in the sessions. This friend's enthusiastic statement increased Kardec's distrust. It was after some time, in the same year, that Mr. Pâtier, an educated man, serious, calmly and coldly, convinced Rivail to attend a mediumistic session.

“Using his vast erudition, as a professor, writer and member of several scientific societies, he carried out a broad approach to the cause of psychic phenomena arising from the turning tables. Kardec proposed an empirical and rational approach to the subject, until then, considered metaphysical, in which several pertinent discussions were produced on epistemological and methodological aspects of exploration of mediumistic phenomena” (Ibid.)

4. Let's see Kardec's humility, which Never He said, “The truth is with me.”

Today and then, many disdain mentions of dwellings on other planets, such as Jupiter. We may have scorned the descriptions of tables running around the room before. Honestly, it is only when we refer to Science that we cannot deny what is presented in a clear, lucid and rational way.

This article is one of the letters received from Victorien Sardou regarding Jupiter.

"If here, in likelihood of explanations, the reader does not find sufficient proof of their veracity; if, like us, you are not surprised by the perfect agreement between these revelations of the Spirits and the most positives of Astronomy; If, in a word, you see nothing more than a skillful mystification in the details that follow and in the drawing that accompanies them, I invite you to explain yourself to the Spirits, of whom I am only a faithful echo and instrument”.

The author invites critics to evoke the Spirits themselves and discuss with them.

Sardou follows the article by giving some descriptions about the dwellings and inhabitants of Jupiter. According to him - and whose source of information is, of course, the Spirits - the bodily conformation of these beings would be like that of a vapor, although much more subtle than that, intangible and luminous, especially in the contours of the face and head, "for there intelligence and life radiate like a very burning focus”.

It is from this vision, says Sardou, that Christian visionaries would have drawn the images of the halos of the saints.

According to him, the Spirits on this planet are incarnated in such subtle matter that they move very quickly and easily detach themselves from the planetary attraction (gravity), according to the action of their own will.

“Thus, some characters that Palissy chose to make me draw are represented as skimming the ground or on the surface of the water or still very high in the air, with all the freedom of action and movement that we attribute to the angels. This locomotion is all the easier the more purified the Spirit is., which is easily understood. Thus, nothing is easier for the inhabitants of the planet than to determine, at first glance, the value of a passing Spirit. Two signs betray him: the height of his flight and the more or less brilliant light of his halo.“

Sardou says that the less advanced Spirits of this planet, when evoked, respond in a laconic way and with a certain haste, as if they had a lot to do: they still don't have the power to radiate themselves simultaneously on two points.

Regarding animals, he says that not even the inhabitants of Jupiter present consensus about their Spirits: if they are Spirits apart or if they are Spirits that will one day reach humanity... It seems to be an enigma for spheres. above of Jupiter. 

Be that as it may, he points out that these Spirits came from other inferior planets, where they spent multiple incarnations, passing through a scale of improvement.

On Jupiter, animals are the only working beings, working on construction and even planting and harvesting. They are not sacrificed, because we already know that everyone there is vegetarian.

From then on, Sardou – or, rather, the communicating Spirit – continues weaving a series of descriptions incredible about the city of Julnius, about how it was formed, etc. He says that there are material parts of cities, on the ground, and diaphanous and flying parts, moved by will, which serve as shelter for human beings on this planet.

Sardou writes that Jupiter, according to the Spirits, has a day and a night, both lasting five hours. Today's data points out that, in fact, they are just over nine hours each.

It is on the right bank of that river, “whose water, says the Spirit, would give you the impression of the consistency of a very light vapor” [we know, today, that there are true rivers of ammonia, from the highest to the most low atmospheres], that the house of Mozart is built, whose design Palissy was kind enough to have me reproduce on copper.

Finally, the article is of general interest. Kardec emphasizes Sardou's honesty and seriousness, noting that Spiritism “does not recruit among fools and ignorant people”.

Kardec takes up the subject of the engravings, reproduced by the medium Victorien Sardou, who, according to Kardec, does not know how to draw or record, about Jupiter's dwellings.

"Even assuming that this drawing is a fantasy of the Spirit that traced it, the mere fact of its execution would not be a phenomenon less worthy of attention. […] not to satisfy the curiosity of frivolous people, but as a subject of study for serious people who want to delve into all the mysteries of Spirit Science” – As far as is known, only through Sardou were these drawings obtained.

It would be a mistake to think that we make the revelation of unknown worlds the main object of the doctrine. This will never be for us more than one accessory, which we consider useful as a complementary study; the main thing will always be for us the moral teaching and communications from beyond the grave we will seek above all that which can enlighten Humanity and lead it to the good, the only way to assure you of happiness in this world and in the next.

ardec presents a case that happened around December 1761, in the city of Dibbelsdorf – Germany, whose documents were published in 1811. The original article, written by Dr. Kerner, was translated into French by Alfred Pireaux.

It is another article of interest about the spiritist facts, which have always occurred everywhere and at all times. However, science was not yet ready to seriously analyze them, even less in the case of Germany at that time. 

Despite the fact that the facts – clever knocks on a corner of the Kettelhuts' house – were analyzed from all possible aspects, reaching the point of demolishing walls and a deep hole, in addition to confining all the residents to their houses and placing in observation the suspects, nothing was found. The only possible answer was never accepted, and they ended up prosecuting and condemning, under a coercive confession, the Kettelhuts.

We highlight Kardec's observation, always surgical in his words:

OBSERVATION: If we pay attention to the date when these things took place and compare them with what is happening in our day, we will find in them perfect identity in the manner of manifestation and even in the nature of the questions and answers. Neither America nor our time discovered the scouting spirits, as they did not discover the others, as we will demonstrate by countless authentic and more or less ancient facts.

KARDEC, RE Aug/1858

There is, however, between current phenomena and those of the past, a major difference: the latter were almost all spontaneous, while ours are produced almost at the will of certain special mediums. This circumstance allowed them to be better studied and their cause more in-depth. To the judges’ conclusion that “perhaps the future will enlighten us in this regard”, today the author would not answer: “the future has not taught us anything yet.” If this author were still alive, he would know, on the contrary, that the future taught everything and that the justice of our days, more enlightened than a century ago, would not commit, in relation to spiritist manifestations, mistakes that remind those of the Middle Ages. Our own sages have penetrated far enough into the mysteries of Nature not to play with unknown causes. They are shrewd enough and do not expose themselves, like their predecessors, to a denial of posterity, to the detriment of their reputation. If something appears on the horizon, they don't run to proclaim, "This is nothing", for fear it might be a ship. If they don't see it, they shut up and wait. This is true wisdom.

In this article, São Vicente de Paulo brings a great reflection on the charity.

Let us analyze, in addition to the necessary moral application that this text brings, its form and content, since it is a communication attributed to this Spirit. What is in these but spiritual elevation? 

“See the multitude of good men, whose pious memory your history recalls. I could cite thousands of those whose morals were aimed only at improving your globe. Has not Christ told you everything concerning the virtues of charity and love? Why are your divine teachings set aside? Why are the ears closed to his divine words and the heart closed to all his soft maxims?

I would like the reading of the Gospel to be done with more personal interest. But they abandon that book; they transform it into an empty expression and a dead letter; leave this admirable code to oblivion. Your evils come from the voluntary abandonment in which you leave this summary of divine laws. Read, then, these fiery pages of Jesus' devotion and meditate on them. I myself feel ashamed to dare to promise you a work on charity, when I think that in this book you will find all the teachings that should lead you to the heavenly regions..”

Charity, in Kardec's context, was understood differently:

[…] rational morality is based on psychology and the definition of an active human being. That is, the moral act is characterized by a free and conscious act, which is defined as the act of duty. It is the morality of freedom, therefore absolutely free, by definition, from any reward or punishment. In this way, as defined by the thinkers of Rational Spiritualism, duty grounds charity as free and disinterested action. The beauty of charity lies precisely in its freedom, said Victor Cousin, the main leader of this school at the Sorbonne University in Paris. (Figueiredo 2019)

Does this mean that we only need the Gospel?

Assuming the Gospel of Jesus very well understood, without sophistry and adulteration, yes, we only need it. However, it is necessary to take into account that its teachings, even if scientific, have a moral aspect, according to the Moral Sciences. Therefore, it is a mistake to abandon this study to fall only in the Evangelical study, given the present needs of Spirits of our category.

Continuing in the article about Charity, according to São Vicente: “Strong men, arm yourselves; weak men, forge your weapons of your sweetness and your faith; have more persuasion, more constancy in the propagation of your new doctrine. We only come to bring you an encouragement; it is only to stimulate the zeal and virtues that God allows us to manifest to you. But if you wished, you would need only the help of God and your own will.. “

Does that mean that we don't need Spiritism?

Morally speaking, if we knew how to apply all the lessons presented so far, we wouldn't even be talking about it now. But that's not how spiritual progress happens – in jolts. It is slow and gradual and, as far as we know, it is everywhere in the Universe. Therefore, the Spiritist Science, which, in the limit, is the science of Creation, is a necessary part of our progress, as knowledge develops morality.

Let's look a little more critically at the content of this message. The following passage caught our attention:

“When you allow your heart to open to the supplication of the first unfortunate person who reaches out to you; when you give it to him without asking whether his misery is feigned or whether his illness has a vice as its cause; when you leave all righteousness in God's hands; when you leave to the Creator the punishment of all false miseries; finally, when you practice charity for the sole pleasure that it provides, without questioning its usefulness, then you will be the children that God will love and that he will call to himself.“

This Spirit, who goes on saying to congratulate himself on the beginning of a movement (São Vicente de Paulo Society), a very important and necessary movement, suggests that we must respond to any request, without verifying whether it is something faked or not. In reality, can we and should we do this, especially nowadays?

We must not blindly follow any Spirit, especially when it makes no sense to our own reason. But Kardec comes to our rescue:

Continuing the conversation with S. Vicente de Paulo, through the psychography of an assistant medium, Kardec informs himself that, in this previous passage, this Spirit speaks specifically of alms. The teacher then asks:

“[…] it seems to us that giving without discernment to those who do not need it or who could earn a living by honest work is to encourage vice and laziness. If lazy people found someone else's purse easily open, they would multiply to infinity, to the detriment of the truly needy.”

SVP responds:

"You can identify those who can work and then charity obliges you to do everything to provide them with work. However, there are also poor liars, who know very well how to simulate miseries that they do not suffer. These are the ones to be left to the righteousness of God.”

Kardec continues with some questions of interest:

6. – Jesus said: “May your right hand not know what your left hand is doing.” Do those who give out of ostentation have any merit? ─ They only have the merit of pride, for which they will be punished.

7. Doesn't Christian charity, in its broadest sense, also include sweetness, benevolence and indulgence towards the weaknesses of others? ─ Do like Jesus. He told you all this. I listened to him more than ever.

8. ─ Is charity properly understood when it is exclusive among creatures of the same opinion or of the same party? ─ No. It is above all the spirit of sect and party that must be abolished, since all men are brothers. That's what we focus our efforts on.

9. ─ Let us admit that a person sees two men in danger, but cannot save but one. One is your friend and the other your enemy. Whom should you save? ─ You must save your friend, because that friend could accuse you of not being friends with you. As for the other, God will take care of it.

It was a consensus that this last question (9.) seemed strange to us, but it must have a reason for being at that moment.

In this article, Kardec concludes the case of Bergzabern, telling some more remarkable facts about the girl, Filipina Soënger. It is up to each one to read, due to the general interest in such phenomena, but the sad thing is to know that the girl ended up being hospitalized:

“Concerned by the facts that we have just reported, the government of the Palatinate proposed that Sänger have his daughter committed to a nursing home in Frankenthal, which was accepted. We are informed that in your new residence, the presence of Filipina has given rise to the wonders of Bergzabern and that the doctors of Frankenthal, as well as those of our city, cannot determine the cause. Furthermore, we are informed that only doctors have access to the girl.”

The book Pensamento e Vontade, by Ernesto Bozzano, brings us a very timely complement on this subject:

“Using the term photography of thought in a generic sense at this moment, I will say that the first attempts of this kind date back to 1896, when Commander Darget and another friend of his, convinced that thought was an externalizable force, decided to concentrating one's thought on a particular image in order to project it onto a photographic plate.

On May 27, 1896, he, Darget, fixed a very clear image of a bottle on a sensitized plate, on which he had thought so intensely, that it gave him a severe headache.”

“This experiment was repeated on the 5th of June of the same year, with complete success […]

But the next day, when we made the revelation on paper, what impressed us the most was a female figure, with a characteristic haircut. It was indisputably a spirit who had intended to photograph himself.

[…]

Only a few days later, in the course of a session at the home of the well-known writer Mr. Leon Denis, is that they had the manifestation of a personality who called herself Sofia and declared that she was the one who, aided by other Spirits, had carried out the phenomenon.

[…]

Incidentally, her identity was established, as a vegetable merchant in Amiens, who died a short time before. The Revista Científica e Moral do Espiritismo reproduced this scotograph, in which the face of the manifested woman is clearly visible, above the bottle”

sir William Crookes was also a great scholar of spiritist phenomena, having managed to obtain photographs of spirits.

“Florence Cook, who at the time was only 15 years old, alone in the Crookes house and with his family and friends as witnesses, materialized the spirit of Katie King, who walked in the house, talked, allowed herself to be weighed and measured, and still held the baby of the family in her arms. The sessions were done in the dark, so that the materializations were better, although red light was occasionally used to obtain photographs.“.

Crookes' report, published in 1874, claimed that Florence Cook, as well as the mediums Kate Fox and Daniel Dunglas Home, produced genuine spiritual phenomena. The publication of this caused quite a stir, and her testimony about Katie King was considered the most controversial point in the report. Crookes almost lost his membership in the Royal Society, no longer engaging in spiritist investigations.

We had in Brazil one of the most spectacular mediums the world has known: Carmine Mirabelli, whose name was later changed to Carlos or Carlo Mirabelli. By him, some photos of materialization phenomena were also obtained.

Kardec observes: “[…] Generally, the perispirit is invisible, however, in certain circumstances, it condenses and, combining with other fluids, it becomes perceptible to the eye and sometimes even tangible. That's what you see in the apparitions”.

“Whatever the subtlety and weightlessness of the perispirit, it is still a kind of matter, whose physical properties are still unknown to us. Since it is matter, it can act on matter. This action is evident in magnetic phenomena.”

By an action of unknown material laws, the perispirit of Mr. Badet remained imprinted on the material of the glass, although invisible, until a fortuitous action of another force, perhaps atmospheric (or, who knows, spiritual?), came to reveal it.

Kardec cites, by way of comparison, the daguerreotype, developed in 1837 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre: before Daguerre, there were no daguerreotyped images, although he did not invent either light, nor copper plates, nor silver, nor chlorides.

It is necessary that the human being fulfills its evolution, acquires and develops science, so that, then, new spiritual discoveries can be reached. We remember that it is a time when a simple combustion caused by a bottle of water, which turns into a lens, was a cause of astonishment and admiration.

The article “a new photographic discovery”, in the Revista Espírita of July 1858, opened the way to remember this fact well known in the spiritist milieu.

That name was given to the sad case of the process brought against Mr. Pierre-Gaëtan Leymarie and Messrs. Buguet and Firman, in 1875, after they began to publish supposed spiritual photographs in Revista Espírita.

For some, the process was based on false accusations that this gentleman was publishing fraudulent photographs of disembodied spirits (see “Process of Spiritists”, by Marina Leymarie).

For others, the fraud was real and well documented. He quotes Simoni Privato, in his work Allan Kardec's Legacy, that Leymarie did not take the proper care that the master himself would have taken care of, so that he subjected himself to supporting clearly controversial practices, among them the promotion, in RE, of mediumistic sessions paid which the medium Alfred Henry Firman performed twice a week.

He quotes Simoni Privato, in The Legacy of Allan Kardec:

“On learning that the photographer Édouard Buguet was obtaining photographs of spirits in Paris, Leymarie, together with a group of people, investigated these phenomena at the end of 1873. At that time, Leymarie was the sole administrator and the representative of all members of the Anonymous Society, as well as managing secretary and editor of Revista Espírita.”

“Leymarie began to advertise, in the Spiritist Magazine, Buguet's photographic work. He presented the photographer as “an artist without pretensions, full of amiability, who greatly appreciates his faculty for what it is, that is, a pure and simple act of mediumship”. He also informed the conditions that the interested parties had to fulfill to carry out the experiments with Buguet and the price of the service. In short, Leymarie publicly supported and encouraged, in the Revista Espírita, the paid mediumship”.